Do Primitively Eusocial Wasps Use Queen Pheromones to Regulate Reproduction? A Case Study of the Paper Wasp Polistes satan
Do Primitively Eusocial Wasps Use Queen Pheromones to Regulate Reproduction? A Case Study of the Paper Wasp Polistes satan
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DOI：
10.3389/fevo.2019.00199
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发表时间：
2019-06-11
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
Wenseleers, Tom
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Oi, Cintia A.;Oliveira, Ricardo C.;Wenseleers, Tom
在几种具有不同种姓的高社会性昆虫中，蚁后特征的表皮碳氢化合物（CHCs）被证明是抑制巢内工蚁繁殖的蚁后信号。然而，目前还不知道这种女王信息素是否也可能发挥作用，在调节生殖分工的reproductively eusocial昆虫，缺乏形态定义的种姓。在这里，我们实验测试是否混合CHCs发生在较高浓度的占主导地位的繁殖女性作为一个女王信息素，并抑制生殖由下属女性在reproductively eusocial纸黄蜂Polistes撒旦。与早期的研究结果与高度社会化的物种，我们的研究结果表明，虽然特定的化合物增强占主导地位，繁殖活跃的女性，这些化合物的混合物中的五个没有抑制雌性巢伴侣的卵巢的发展。相反，占主导地位的雌性必须亲自出现，以防止从属的雌性繁殖。我们的研究结果与早期的证据一致，表明生殖力相关的化合物在reactively eusocial黄蜂只作为线索，并有助于调节生殖时，与侵略性的优势行为，这意味着占主导地位的女性的身体存在。或者，我们的研究结果支持这一假设，皇后信息素在高度eusocial昆虫增选从生育线索，已经存在于reproductively eusocial祖先，即使最初，这种化合物只是作为卵巢激活的副产品，实际上没有起到信号生殖状态。
In several highly eusocial insect species with morphologically distinct castes, queen-characteristic cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) have been shown to act as queen signals that suppress the reproduction of nestmate workers. However, it is not known whether such queen pheromones might also play a role in regulating reproductive division of labor in primitively eusocial insects that lack morphologically defined castes. Here, we experimentally tested whether a blend of CHCs which occurred in higher concentrations in the dominant breeding female acts as a queen pheromone, and inhibits reproduction by subordinate females in the primitively eusocial paper wasp Polistes satan. In contrast to earlier findings with highly eusocial species, our results show that although specific compounds were enhanced in dominant, reproductively active females, a blend of five of these compounds did not inhibit development of the ovaries of female nestmates. Instead, the dominant female had to be physically present to prevent subordinate females from reproducing. Our results are in line with earlier evidence suggesting that fertility-linked compounds in primitively eusocial wasps act only as cues and help to regulate reproduction when used in conjunction with aggressive dominance behavior, meaning the physical presence of the dominant female. Alternatively, our results support the hypothesis that queen pheromones in highly eusocial insects were co-opted from fertility cues that were already present in primitively eusocial ancestors, even when initially, such compounds were merely produced as by-products of ovarian activation, without actually serving to signal reproductive status.